Scary, because had the suspension not been lifted, it would have effectively shut down all amateur boxing activity nationwide.

Immediately.

No competitions. No clinics. No rhythmic slap of a jumping rope or rat-a-tat-tat of a speed bag.

Had the ban been upheld, many local gyms would have been shuttered until further notice.

Pros could continue their workouts. Cardio boxing would not have been affected. But amateur activity would have ceased, at least officially, because a ban also meant no USA Boxing insurance coverage for its membership.

There are hundreds of boxing gyms all over South Texas. Some are little more than a collection of bags hanging from trees in back yards.

Getting them all to stop would have been next to impossible.

“We'd have had to go on the honor system,” Calo-oy said.

Good luck with that.

More pressing was the matter of Saturday's pro-am boxing card at Freeman Coliseum. The suspension would have forced local promoters “Jesse” James Leija and Mike Battah to pull the plug on the amateur portion of the event.

All 24 bouts.

Not an easy thing to do 48 hours before the first bell.

All of the amateur boxers had sold thousands of dollars worth of tickets. Refunds would have been a nightmare.

“I'm telling everyone to be patient and stay positive,” Battah said Thursday, hours after the suspension was announced. “We're going to work through this.”

Battah had local attorney and boxing manager Michael Miller fire off a letter to USA Boxing, appealing for cooler heads to prevail.

Apparently, Miller wasn't alone. LBC leaders from all over the country got in the ear of USA Boxing president Charles Butler to appeal to AIBA to allow boxing on the grassroots level to continue.

It worked. Butler convinced AIBA president Wu Ching-Kuo to lift the ban.

The action ended one of the ugliest chapters in USA Boxing history. But the organization's future remains cloudy.

Boxing's national governing body has been a mess for a long time. It has gone through roughly one chief executive each year for a decade and been beset by internal squabbles and corruption.

It's been on the ropes in the eyes of AIBA before. Finally boxing's international body put its foot down after then-USA Boxing president Hal Adonis was quoted in the New Yorker earlier this year claiming connections between child abuse and successful boxers.